Cades Sandstone

Metasandstone and metasiltstone of the Cades Sandstone exposed at Abrams Falls.

Cades Sandstone is a gray brown, fine to medium grained sandstone with minor conglomerate beds that contain clasts of metagranite. The metasandstone is interbedded with finely-laminated gray to blue-black siltstone. To the southwest of Cades Cove along Panther Creek is a distinctive boulder conglomerate derived from Mesoproterozoic leucocratic granite (Neuman and Nelson, 1965). The dark graphite-bearing slaty siltstone and boulder conglomerate within the metasandstone closely resemble similar rocks found within the Thunderhead Sandstone elsewhere in the park. Therefore, the Cades Sandstone is here considered to be part of the Great Smoky Group.